News

USA: Andrew Sullivan: Words, not weapons, will fell the tyrants of Tehran

It’s perhaps only natural that the subject of Iran would be so contentious in American politics. It destroyed one presidency — Jimmy Carter’s — and it rubbed the gloss off another — Ronald Reagan’s. Since the collapse of the Shah in 1979, the country has exerted a pull on American fears and hopes in the Middle East unlike most others.

In the war against Islamist terrorism, Iran is also the biggest deal there is. Bigger than Iraq, it is far closer to a nuclear capability than Saddam was in recent years. Bigger even than Saudi Arabia, because its government is so viscerally hostile to the West. As the first country to have completely succumbed to the new and lethal ideology of Islamo-fascism, it’s also the pre-eminent symbol of the status quo America needs and wants to change after September 11.